How do you prove to your Facebook fans that you are who you say you are? Have you been thinking about verified Pages? Here’s what you need to know from MakeUseOf.com.

Many businesses have started Facebook Pages, yet have no idea how to prove the Facebook Page is legitimately connected to them. Even worse, some don’t realise they should try to prove themselves to their customers. However, this is an important step in gaining trust, so it’s worth looking into properly when you next give your Facebook Page a makeover.

Who Should Prove Their Page Is Legit?

If you’re a business with a website or a physical location, your customers will be pleased to know that your Page is connected to the real business. If you’re running competitions or promotions on your Facebook Page, people taking part in these will be reassured to know that you are who you say you are. If this sounds like your situation, you may want to prove to your customers that the Facebook Page is operated by the same people that run the business.

If you simply run a Facebook Page that shows interesting content for a particular audience, then you don’t really need to prove anything, as the people behind the Page aren’t as important to the fans as the actual content. For instance, the Amazing Things In The World Page is awesome and has a huge following, but there is no real need to prove who is behind it. Fans simply enjoy the content.

How Do I Get My Page Verified?

Verifying Facebook Pages is actually not something you can control. Facebook will verify Pages for celebrities, journalists, government officials, popular brands and businesses. However, Facebook decides who needs verification and will assess it accordingly. You can’t just tell Facebook that you require verification.

This means that there are plenty of perfectly authentic Pages out there which have not been verified and will never become verified. Your Page is no doubt one of them.

What Else Can I Do To Prove My Page’s Legitimacy?

Just because you can’t get the blue tick doesn’t mean that you should give up on proving your Page’s authenticity. You can still do several things to ensure you look legitimate to your fans. For starters, fill in the details in the About section of your Page. Make sure you have linked to your business website and listed an email address from the same domain. For instance, the MakeUseOf Page showing jackson @ makeuseof.com is far more professional and authentic than listing his Gmail address. Readers of the MakeUseOf Facebook Page will know that someone from MakeUseOf is really behind the content.

Most importantly, link to your Facebook Page from your website. Use Facebook’s badges and social plugins such as Like Boxes and Like Buttons on your business’s official website to assure your customers that this is an official Facebook Page for your company. Read Facebook’s Getting Started Guide for more information. Offline, you can also add details of your Facebook Page to your marketing material and business cards.

How Can I Claim A Community Page For My Business?

If someone unconnected to your business has started a Page for your company, you can report them and get it deleted. However, it may not be a malicious Page owner you’re dealing with.

Sometimes, community Pages are automatically generated for businesses and locations when Facebook users check in to somewhere that doesn’t already have a Page. If you want to claim an unclaimed page, click on the gear icon and select “Is This Your Business?”, then follow the prompts. It will take a week to verify you once your documentation is submitted. Read more details on this process here if you need to.

Once you’ve claimed the Page, you can merge it with your official Page. All details must match or be very similar, including names and addresses.

What Else Should I Know?

If you’re not Tom Cruise or Coca Cola, chances are you’re not going to get your Facebook Page verified. Just do your best to authenticate yourself to your fans and they’ll appreciate knowing you are who you say you are. Meanwhile, you may also like to read our Facebook Marketing guide to get some great ideas for your Page.

How do you authenticate your Facebook Page to your fans? Let us know in the comments!